An unborn baby’s heart starts beating at 18 days after conception, typically before a mama even knows there is life inside her womb. And, yet, it is completely legal to stop these hearts. I won’t go into the gruesome details about abortion in this post, but make no mistake that as the pregnancy progresses, the methods to kill the unborn baby become more and more gruesome. What I can’t understand is why anyone would be a part of this.

What continues to scroll through my mind is 1 Timothy 6:10, which reads, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” No, money is not the root of all evil…but the love of money is. You see, once you put money above everything else, you have made it a god and you are willing to sacrifice anything for this god. Unbelievably so, people are willing to sacrifice unborn babies for this god.

What is really tragic is that Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics promote abortion. They fight against having to show ultrasounds because they know this information sways a woman’s decision. So much for a woman’s right to choose. So much for informed consent. So much for life. And, of course they promote abortion…this is how they make money. There is no money in referring someone to an adoption agency. Look at the numbers: 327,653 to 1,880. Those are Planned Parenthood numbers for abortions versus adoption referrals …per year.

If you don’t believe it’s all about the money, look up Carol Everett. She became rich off of abortions, until her conscience could not stand the convictions any longer and she left the industry. Thank God she has now devoted her life to the pro-life movement.

Pro-choice folks claim they care about women, and that this is why they support a woman’s right to choose. They used to say the baby is not a baby, but many have turned away from that tired rhetoric. They know it’s a baby, but still believe the woman should be able to choose. They claim the baby cannot survive without the woman and that no woman should be held captive. If they care so much about women, how can they ignore the 2011 meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Psychiatry that reports post-abortive women are at an 81% increased risk of developing mental health problems? (Want to read more? I’ve includes a few studies at the conclusion of the blog.)

Yet these same people continue to claim that abortion should remain legal for the rape exception (although pregnancy as a result of rape is rare) and for women to be able to kill their unborn child if it is disabled (so much for the fact that disability can happen at any point in life and no humane person would support killing a child who becomes disabled after birth). They even claim that this is out of compassion for the woman and the child. And did you know that the overwhelming majority of babies with downs syndrome are aborted. THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR!

Aren’t you tired of this? I most certainly am. This is not about condemning women who had made this choice. The past cannot be changed. However, we can and we must do something about the present and the future. We can and should fight to defund Planned Parenthood. We can and should support pro-life ministries and adoption agencies. We can and should pray and minister to women in crisis pregnancies. And we should not be afraid to speak out about the benefits of abstinence outside of marriage – since 86% of those seeking abortion are not married. Abstinence is the only fool-proof way to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

We should be willing to stand up on behalf of the most vulnerable. These unborn children are relying on their mothers, and yet because of choice or coercion, at the hands of the mother and the abortionists, they are being killed by the millions. What a sad testimony to our society. The pro-choice community certainly does not care about the unborn…do those who claim they are pro-life? Or will we stand by while the unborn continue to be a sacrifice made to the god of money.

Articles:

Coleman, P.K. (2011). Abortion and mental health: Quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995-2009. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 199, 180-186. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.110.077230

Curley, M, & Johnston, C. (2013). The characteristics and severity of psychological distress after abortion among university students. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research 40(3), 279-293.

I 100% believe and support the points made in this article. It is not, however a good reason to support the misinformation spread via crisi pregnancy centers that birth control pills are abortifacients. It is also does not justify supporting a horrible person like Donald Trump in any capacity.

Leabrand

In my 65+ years I’ve known a lot of women who have had abortions (myself included, while married I should add) and a few who chose to give their babies up for adoption. In that time I’ve yet to hear any regrets from the women who chose abortion; their decisions to abort were often difficult and many considerations weighed but once made they were steadfast. However the women who chose to give their babies away were the ones who had a difficult time. In their own telling they’ve spent years searching faces in crowds and having teary, remorseful little “birthday parties” for children they never knew, always wondering if the child was healthy and happy or, however unlikely, being abused or even dead.
A good friend, a devout Christian who does not believe in abortion, has a different and more benign view on the process of abortion telling me that “Those unborn babies are not forever gone but their souls have returned to the ether where they await the next opportunity to join the living with a family that will love and cherish them. Some of them may even have chosen to relinquish this body not wanting to spend a lifetime being unwanted or ill and in pain.” (I’ve paraphrased but this was the gist of her statement) Certainly a more positive way to look at a situation that is never going to change – women have been electing to end pregnancies since the beginning of time and will continue to do so despite whatever the law of the land.

td whittle

I am a retired psychotherapist and family therapist. I refrain from making decisions on behalf of other women about how to manage their pregnancies. My experience has differed from yours, though, in that I have met all kinds of women, personally (including in my own family) and professionally, and can state with some certainty that they vary widely in how they feel looking back on their choices: either to keep their child, even though their pregnancy was unexpected and unwanted; to have an abortion; or to seek adoption for their baby. I have known many women who regret their abortions and many who regret having adopted out their children. I know others who feel that they made the right decision for that time in their lives, whether abortion or adoption, and who think of abortion as just a medical procedure that one should not invest with too much emotion.

I have also worked closely with women who regret having given birth to the child they ended up with, in the case where the child turned out to have a devastating mental disability … This sounds horrible, but it is an emotion born of love, suffering, and maternal protection towards their offspring that brings them to admit this, not selfishness or cruelty. They worried what would happen to their child once they could no longer look after them … their child who had never outgrown their dependency on them, and whom no one else loved or would tolerate having in their lives for long. My point is that motherhood is complex and women’s emotional responses to both their born and unborn children are not something that can be easily fitted into a neat box and tied off with a bow.

td whittle

Just on a side note, I have never heard of a “devout Christian” talking of souls which “have returned to the ether where they await the next opportunity to join the living with a family that will love and cherish them.” This is an idea borne of esoteric mysticism that thrives in many New Age ideologies today. It is not even remotely a Christian one.

Leabrand

You are absolutely right – choosing whether or not to become a mother is a truly complex decision to have to make, even more so in the last 40 years. And I was speaking only about women that I was close enough to to have those sorts of conversations, did not intend to convey that their stories were universal by any means.
IMO we need to trust women to make their own decisions concerning such a life changing event because only they know what personal considerations need to be addressed. For that reason I am firmly pro-choice, which is NOT pro-abortion despite what the anti-choice advocates say. In fact I consider myself to really be pro-life, but pro-quality life, which can only exist when we’re allowed to make that choice, preferably without the judgement of strangers. No boxes, no bows,

td whittle

Yes, I understand. A well-thought out position, in my opinion. Cheers.

Myles

When you get pregnant then your opinion on abortion becomes important, to you. Until then mind your own business. women have it rough enough if faced with this. Morons like you don’t help.

as the pregnancy progresses, the methods to kill the unborn baby become more and more gruesome

What I hear you saying is that we should remove bureaucratic roadblocks to abortion and encourage pregnancy testing so that if an abortion is to happen, it will happen as soon as possible. I agree!

Abstinence is the only fool-proof way to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

And yet abstinence as a policy is very flawed. Compare the statistics of abortion between states that teach only abstinence and those that don’t. “Abstinence only” teaching does poorly. Or compare US unwanted pregnancy (or abortion) rates with other countries. We do poorly. Shouldn’t we learn what they’re doing right? Since our results are so poor, shouldn’t we change?

If your point is that not having sex is a very good way to avoid unwanted pregnancy, you’re right. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about abstinence as policy. And we’ve tried that. And it doesn’t work well.

Why don’t we look to other societies–y’know, the ones that have unwanted pregnancy rates far lower than ours–and see what they do? Maybe accurate, comprehensive information to teens about the bodies that they have would make sense. Anything less is like giving them the keys to a car without giving them driving lessons.